Saturday, 21 April 2012

Kate Simko & Matt Tolfrey - The Same Page EP

Strong stuff as ever from Leftroom here, from the transatlantic team of London boy Matt Tolfrey and Chicago-based Kate Simko.

It's a three-track affair, so taking them one by one… Take It Easy opens proceedings, a shuffle-y number boasting an interesting combination of warm keyboard sounds that will appeal to the older househeads and colder synth sounds that will please the East London hipsters. No Shame features a cool b-line that throbs away unassumingly throughout, again topped off with very 'now'-sounding synths. And then finally Lazy B is where the Chicagoan influences really come to the fore, with a squelchy, rough-edged b-line, handclaps and space-disco stabs providing the backdrop for, yep, more of those 'future retro' synths.

I can't help thinking that perhaps one just one vocal cut wouldn't have gone amiss – there's only so many too-cool-for-school synth instrumentals these ears can take before a little human warmth and a little sex appeal are required. But this is bang in line with current tastes, and a good example of its particular micro-genre – with just enough funk flowing through its veins to have appeal beyond just the skinny-jeaned youngsters who are its most immediately obvious target market.